Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Louisiana

Re: no will

Assuming your mother passed away while living in Louisiana and that most, if not all of her property/assets are located within Louisiana, three children should share the estate divided equally into three portions--age of the heir has nothing to do with the proportion of one's inheritance. If there is a house or other real estate involved, each of you would be considered a "co-owner in indivision"--i.e., you each own a third of the whole thing and must, for all practical purposes, all agree on what is to be done with the real estate. If all cannot agree, one or more of you can open the succession in court and seek a judicial partition of the property (i.e., you have the court sell it on the open market and divide the profits after all expenses have been paid). A judicial partition is not a magic or perfect solution and will probably be more costly than all of you simply compromising and agreeing on what to do with it, like selling it yourself.

I would strongly suggest that all three of you together make an appointment to consult with a lawyer who handles successions so that you all can hear--at the same time--your legal options, how succession law applies to your situation and the pros and cons of not agreeing to a friendly division of the estate. It may cost you $25 to $100 total but it would be money well spent so that no one of you feels like the other knows more or has more control over the decision than the others, which I suspect may resolve the problem you seem to be having.

Good Luck.